


a temporary migration

by ruedesgres (smithens)



Category: Les Misérables - Victor Hugo
Genre: Canon Era, Friendship, Gen, Implied Relationships, Minor Original Character(s), Political Alliances, Road Trips
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-30
Updated: 2019-08-30
Packaged: 2020-09-25 00:41:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,687
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20367784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smithens/pseuds/ruedesgres
Summary: Enjolras and Laigle leave Paris on business; the society of the Friends of the ABC continues on in their absence.





	a temporary migration

**Author's Note:**

  * For [shellcollector](https://archiveofourown.org/users/shellcollector/gifts).

> > La société des Amis de l'A B C, affiliée aux mutuellistes d'Angers et à la Cougourde d'Aix, se réunissait, on l'a vu, au café Musain.
>> 
>> The society of the Friends of the A B C, affiliated with the mutalists of Angers and the Courgourde of Aix, met, as we have seen, at the Café Musain. 
> 
> — _Les Misérables_, IV. Saint Denis, Book I. Quelques pages d'histoire / Some pages of history, Chapter V. Faits d'où l'histoire sort et que l'histoire ignore, Victor Hugo 

A disruption arrived to the backroom of the Café Musain one evening in the form of Enjolras and a very brief note in familiar penmanship. 

There was business to attend to with contacts in Angers; he would embark posthaste. Laigle would accompany him. For him, this was a political venture with the additional benefit of having assured accommodation; for Enjolras, the choice was more geographical in nature.

The two were to set out the following Monday morning; it was determined unanimously that any grave matters to attend to in the time of their absence ought be under the charge of Courfeyrac. Given the previous weeks, this resolution was not merely precautionary. 

* * *

They were settled in the coach by seven.

Laigle opted to keep his travelling bag beside him, to the aggrievement of the driver. 

"It is Joly's," said he to Enjolras, as if this explained everything.

Enjolras tilted his head to one side.

"Ah, you are wondering why I, a bear with no den, an eagle with no nest, lack my own carpet bag — it had a tear. The fault of the cat, I imagine, for she detests me. If I were travelling with my own I should be happy not to have my eye on it; as this is not mine… whatever misfortune may come to me perhaps can be prevented, or if naught else offset, with vigilance."

"I was not wondering," he replied, almost smiling, "but I am sorry to hear about your fraught relationship with the feline."

Laigle shrugged.

There was a pause.

"We've a journey of thirty hours," continued Enjolras. Perhaps he had wanted to say this earlier. "that is, assuming ordinary conditions and smooth changes. Forty is not out of the realm of possibility. We shall pass the night for certain in Chartres and then Le Mans; our lodging in Angers is arranged. The society there is well-situated."

"The society?"

"Of mutualists. They are primarily working-men of the spinning mills, with few exceptions. It was Raimbault who wrote: you will like him. He quitted his studies in Paris not a year ago. Combeferre introduced me; we made but brief contact before he returned home — home being Beaucouzé, I believe, but you and I shall remain in the city."

"Studies in law?"

"In theology."

"In earlier years a northwesterner might have attended in Nantes for such a discipline."

"You overestimate the quality of education there," replied Enjolras, and Laigle wondered how he might be intimated with the quality of a university no longer in existence. "In present years a man who wishes to have a parish might attend a seminary, rather than a university."

This prompted Laigle to begin an extended speech upon the the forgotten theological faculties of the Ancien Régime abolished by the Convention and left to crumble by Bonaparte, which transformed to a speech upon the decline of Jansenism, the Edict of Nantes, the dragonnades, and a particular professor of law at the Sorbonne whose knowledge of the catechism was faulty, and they began their journey on agreeable terms.

* * *

"You are no good at this," announced Grantaire. 

"You mean to say, I am not Bossuet."

"Alas, for he has flown away; isn't it so that a temporary migration stings sharper than a permanent one, and one does not traverse France on foot alone," called Jean Prouvaire from the stairs. He then joined them both at the table to survey the game board before agreeing loudly that Joly was, indeed, hopeless at backgammon, at least with Grantaire as a well-practised opponent. Neither man took to these words kindly, but as they were equally if differently fond of Jean Prouvaire, so neither expressed his offense.

It was the immediately succeeding Wednesday. They were in the billiards room at the Corinthe: between them (mostly by Grantaire) they had consumed two bottles of bad wine and two and a half bowls of mediocre stew, and their spirits had suffered for all of it. Jean Prouvaire eyed the remaining dishes and pulled up a chair, nabbing a stale piece of bread from Joly's plate and using it to help himself to the remainder of Grantaire's stew.

Ignoring this, Grantaire rolled a double six and made quick work of his remaining checkers. "You rely on luck, he upon skill. Together perhaps you would make a worthy opponent."

"I should miss him more if he were gone permanently, Jean Prouvaire," said Joly after a significant pause, shifting uncomfortably in his seat. 

"I wouldn't," said Grantaire. 

Joly and Prouvaire waited kindly for him to continue. He did not. This was the most concise Grantaire had been in months.

The game being done with, conversation lagged. A speechless Grantaire was too out of the ordinary to tiptoe around.

Some awkward minutes later, Feuilly, who was sent to see why Prouvaire had been unsuccessful at calling Joly to the meeting in the taproom below, came up the stairs and into the restaurant.

He cleared his throat. 

Prouvaire started, stood, attempted to speak with his mouth full, and then turned a vivid shade of red and settled for tugging Joly up by the coat collar.

Grantaire did not accompany them downstairs.

If anyone noticed, they said nothing: it was not worth commenting upon when there were weighty matters to attend to.

The taproom had a small room off the side, perhaps originally a kitchen pantry but now with an accessible door only to the main counter area; it was this place that the society of the Friends of the A B C occupied.

"Thank you for joining us," said Combeferre, in an even tone which betrayed neither ire nor gratitude. He was seated nearest to the door.

Courfeyrac acknowledged them only with a glance, and continued speaking. He was leaning over a pocket map with a pencil in his hand.

"...and a generous donation from our Freemason friends at Grenelle-Saint-Honoré. The principal of the fine thus established, if Sagnié is released as planned — "

"God willing," someone murmured — 

" — he and his family must have accommodation  _ together _ . One must only be cautious of surveillance: he is known, now, or otherwise another of the cobblers could take him in. At present the family are with — a maternal brother, I believe? but that is temporary. Bahorel has told me he is already under watch. Nevertheless. The next place, at least, is resolved. Jean-Mathieu," a nod at the mentioned, who returned it, "has said he can host them all for a few nights. Once a new home is established his rent may be paid through the quarter, so that is very well. But if there is any delay, well, it won't do, for the spare space in the house is promised — "

" — to the Cougourde," finished Jean-Mathieu for him.

"Yes. To the Cougourde. Now — "

"But it won't do anyhow," Feuilly interrupted, "it's too far from the workshop." He pointed out several places on the map: indeed, the distance was rather long. "You cannot expect a man to travel on foot across the river every morning simply to do his work. My building is nearer, here, in the tenth, still further than their own rooms were but far more serviceable than a house in the Faubourg Saint-Germain; I might host him, but then there is the question of the wife and children. This has disrupted their lives enough already."

He looked up from the map to see the others staring at him.

There was an uncomfortable silence. Bahorel, who was leaning upon the wall and had until that moment mostly observed, took his pipe from his mouth and frowned, opened his mouth to say something, but Combeferre intercepted him: "Feuilly," he said, with utmost gentleness, though he looked rather strained, "he was let go."

"What?" 

"Only the day before yesterday," returned Bahorel, eyes downcast. "I happened across _Madame_ Sagnié, Justine, who had received word from M. Blanchard, another of their budding coterie; of course they are all distraught, but without the resources of a group larger than they, larger than _we_, even — "

"Impossible," spluttered Feuilly, "I know the cordwainer, he is a forgiving and just employer, he would never dismiss an honorable man for something such as this — "

"You  _ know _ how fickle these things are," said Gosset, another of the working artisans in attendance.

"Besides, the shopkeeper is not even a republican — "

"All of us have been affected by the prejudiced whims of these masters at some time or another — " 

Several students bowed their heads, uncomfortable.

"He's been locked up more than a week already, Feuilly."

"And from what  _ I _ know of it," answered the addressed, "Sagnié had been hammering shoe-soles under him for  _ four years _ , I won't believe it, there must have been a, a bribe, or — "

Courfeyrac slammed his fist on the table, seemed near to an outburst of righteous passion; when he spoke, however, his voice was calm. He might have been discussing a choice between restaurants or flower shops. "Would you rather it be true, my friend, that a man whom you believe to be honorable accepted a bribe, or that he valued the food on his own table more than that of his hired men?"

Feuilly clenched his jaw, but could not answer, for there was just then a knock upon the door.

Combeferre rose to answer it, and everyone quieted.

His conversation could be heard through the door, and all realised at once that they had not been nearly so discreet as desired.

"What the devil racket is going on in there?"

"Ah, my good sir! Come, come! You have chanced upon a private party! I do say, I've a notion that this is to be the most fortunate day of your life. My good fellow, I am Jean-Antoine Martin de Cuisy, president of the 'Île-de-France Amateur Ichthyological Society for the Empirical Enlightenment of the Fish Lover Young And Old'; today we are planning an expedition to Viry-Châtillon to research the effect of the town's unique sediment upon the autocthonic population there of  _ Carassius carassius _ whilst indulging ourselves in the good father Hucheloup's excellent  _ Cyprinus carpio _ …"

They seemed to be walking away.

Inside the private room the situation was further described in hushed voices until all were on the same page; a course of action regarding the arrested cobbler was determined: 

"...very well, then, that is the penalty sum and lodging settled," finished Courfeyrac. He finally sat. "There is the matter of his work, and the support of his family."

"The rest of the group is taking care of the latter," said Bahorel.

"Is that confirmed?"

"From the mouth of Justine."

"And it is ongoing?"

"The devil! No, she said merely that his 'brothers' had been good to them thus far."

"No guarantee for tomorrow, then."

"We must be certain they are provided for or provide for them ourselves," said Gosset. "They have enlisted us for assistance. Not one of us wishes to be responsible for a hungry child."

"Why, of course not."

"Someone make a note of it," suggested Joly, and four voices called, "I will."

A beat.

"Four is more likely to be remembered than one," said Jean-Mathieu, who indulged the rest in his elder age by providing common-sense wisdom at times such as these, "but if you are too detailed we will have also four liabilities."

"We ought to have done this sooner," someone mused.

"Combeferre took a role," said Feuilly, "perhaps — "

"For personal use," replied Courfeyrac, "but I daresay he intended to share them with those not present anyhow — "

As if called, Combeferre returned at last, and once he did, he laid his coat along the crack beneath the door.

"Keep your voices low, or we shall _all_ be arrested," he hissed. He took his former seat. 

"But the immediate risk is, ah, taken care of?"

"Indeed. Where were we?"

"Four liabilities," said Courfeyrac. "You were taking notes?"

Combeferre raised his eyebrows. "Prior to my missionism on behalf of fish-lovers young and old, yes." 

"No matter," said Jean Prouvaire, with uncharacteristic dominance, "here, 'enquire regarding provision of food and services for family of M. S—.'" He tore the page from his diary and passed it to Combeferre, who glanced at it before folding it twice and tucking it into his own notebook.

With but a glance from Courfeyrac he had understood the situation, and he sighed resignedly.

"Enquire with whom?"

"And by who?"

"It is Enjolras who is most familiar to them," said Joly.

Bahorel coughed and was ignored.

"I daresay Enjolras is not an option," said Courfeyrac, "seeing as this must be done by tomorrow or the next day, but even if he were here, we cannot risk it — we all recall what happened during the arrest. Bahorel, do not feel slighted, you are trusted but conspicuous, and have exhibited a pattern. You cannot go either."

"Alas! That is so." It was evident he did not feel slighted at all. "But, whoever goes must enquire with Thibaud — write that down, Combeferre — he is the most in charge, and someone, the same man or otherwise, ought to check in on Justine and the little ones. Verify with each; encourage honesty. No shame to them if something has slipped their mind, but  _ factis ut credam facis _ ; a promise is meaningless if it is not made good upon."

"And the same is true for us, as well," said Combeferre. 

"If that is settled," Feuilly murmured, "there stands now the question of his livelihood."

"Is it settled?"

"Isn't it?"

"But who will make contact?"

Silence. 

"I might go," murmured Jean Prouvaire after several moments. He sought Courfeyrac's gaze and held it, but was met with a slight frown.

Someone chuckled nervously.

"Jean Prouvaire, you are  _ also _ conspicuous, and certainly memorable," at this Jean Prouvaire blushed, "so that is not our problem entirely solved."

"Who is to say," he returned, "that, that, a wealthy eccentric might have grown fond of his shoe-mender, and wish to be charitable in his time of need? It is not so fantastical."

Combeferre reached to set a hand on his. "It is not fantastical at all, but it would be noteworthy nonetheless. It is precisely that which we wish to avoid." 

"Well," said Joly, eager to find compromise. "There are plenty of — er, wealthy eccentrics about. A description might not be so specific as to make distinguishing between them a simple task."

"Yes," said Prouvaire, with a little more vivacity, "and besides that, I know the neighborhood, or at least the one of this Justine, very well, which cannot be said for all of us."

Chatter began. Bahorel murmured to Jean-Mathieu that this familiarity of the area came from a former mistress, Gosset said to Feuilly and Courfeyrac that if the neighborhood knew  _ him _ they could end up in more trouble than Joly had implied, and Prouvaire gained enough courage to tell the room at large that it did not have to be him at all, but of those present he did seem to have the better means and time to complete the task, especially given its urgency.

This was undeniably true. Indeed, Jean Prouvaire seemed only to have obligations which he had imposed upon himself.

"Are we… in favor, then?"

"Enjolras would not bother asking," Joly pointed out; this was met with "I am not Enjolras," from Courfeyrac, and "Enjolras is clairvoyant," from someone else. 

"'In favor' is not precisely — "

"Are we  _ in agreement _ that Jean Prouvaire will check in on the society and family?"

They were.

"_Now_ that that is settled," said Feuilly, "one must determine how we might assist in his work…" 

The meeting continued on, as did its varying asides and interrogations.

* * *

After a fortnight, the absent returned. 

Laigle lodged that night with Enjolras and found the next morning that the latter did not have a razor: "I may blame only myself," he said, "I ought not have left mine on Joly's dressing table."

He hoped that he might impose on Courfeyrac or someone or other before he needed to go out in public. Of course, heading to Courfeyrac's would require going out in public, anyhow.

Enjolras smiled at him apologetically. "I have never had need of one," he said.

"I will trade you my beard for some of your mane," replied Laigle, and thought privately to himself that Enjolras could lose half of his wondrous hair and still have a full head of it.

Other than this, their morning passed with no incident: Enjolras left to meet with Combeferre, Laigle went to meet with Joly (where his shaving knife was not). They were each pleased that night to sleep in familiar beds.

A meeting of the principals of the society blossomed within forty-eight hours. 

Grantaire, who had been absent for the better part of the preceding two weeks, seemed to generate spontaneously in the back room of the Café Musain for the occasion — or at least, this is what Combeferre said to Courfeyrac when each realised simultaneously that the aforementioned was present, and that no one had seen him arrive.

"Rather quiet, isn't he," said Courfeyrac, and he plucked a few leaves from Combeferre's discarded newsjournal and began to review them.

Combeferre pointedly began to gather up the rest of his papers, which covered a fair amount of the table. "I should never call that quiet."

"Quiet for  _ him, _ you pedant."

"Perhaps in the last fortnight he has developed prudence."

"Impossible," remarked Courfeyrac. "Only, he might be a little sober."

On certain occasions the line between political and personal business blurred; this was one. 

Courfeyrac was swiftly whisked away to join a game of cards with Laigle, Bahorel, and Jean Prouvaire; Combeferre engaged Joly regarding his progress in a certain module at the medical school. Feuilly was reading.

Enjolras sat at a corner table with his chin in his palm, quietly observing. Gradually he would receive company: this was simply the way things were. 

The table soon had another brought up against it; chairs were rearranged. Even Grantaire joined them, and if he knew of the sort of glances he received for this choice he did not show it.

Enjolras was lenient.

Once they were gathered, the meeting itself began with ordinary proceedings: Joly volunteered himself to take role and notes for the reference of all, Enjolras readily agreed — "employ the cipher," he murmured into his ear — still, several of the assembled busied themselves with pens and papers. 

For the most part, only Laigle spoke of the situation in Angers.

The situation being: they now had a firm, if still very small, set of allies in the northwest, who, though in the minds of all this was not truly of consequence, were in their debt for dire assistance. There was little else to be said at that time, according to Enjolras, but he hoped the relationship would continue to blossom.

"Very well," said Combeferre, "and do you," this to Enjolras, "desire still that we make appointments locally?"

"Yes — no one leaves tonight before all have been arranged. We must prioritize electors."

"Salons," said Courfeyrac with a nod. 

"And certain smoke shops, cabarets."

"Private balls."

Enjolras looked momentarily discomposed, but nodded. "Indeed. I have spoken with several of you privately. Now, this is not a task that can be completed in a mere day: we must be persistent and diligent both. We have but ten weeks and are limited to metropolitans."

A flurry commenced. Private speech was made public; two or three or four men spoke at once; there were holes in previous agreements; someone did not have means to travel to a suburb; the event had changed its location; someone had been disinvited from a gathering; that faction would not do, for it was mostly wives; for some known men loyalty was not yet established; on what day met whom? and when? — 

"Settle yourselves," said Enjolras, after some minutes had elapsed.

Bahorel and Courfeyrac, who each stood to lean across the table towards one another, both sat.

"Some of that will do," Enjolras continued, referring to arrangements made in the ruckus, "some of it — "

" — must be revised," finished Combeferre. "Courfeyrac, if you hold already an invitation to the Mantaille salon — "

"There is no question! Naturally I intend to go. The most soon is Saturday."

"You ought to go as often as you think proper," Enjolras told him. "Become a regular."

"Verily."

"If you are in need of a hired — "

"No, no," said Courfeyrac quickly. "No. That I can bear myself with ease."

They met one another's eyes. There was a short silence; all observed this mute exchange.

"Oh! Did you not have something… to do, this Saturday?" said Jean Prouvaire suddenly. Feuilly started.

"Or  _ someone _ ," — this from Laigle.

Courfeyrac bristled, then elbowed Laigle in the ribs. "There is nothing so important as this," he retorted, "besides, it is not so grievous a sacrifice — I can call upon the young lady another night. ...oh, alas, she is the most prepossessing thing I have ever laid eyes upon but has not a shred of confidence; a postponement will do me no favors in winning her over."

And Bahorel replied, "Oho! And here I thought you'd said you'd thought you might induct her into the collection at last!" which Grantaire, roused by baudiness, interrupted with, "and what a comely prize to be won! Care you do not take her too thoroughly, for she may have her Menalaus lying in wait," a comment which earned him three unique kicks beneath the table. Though his wince gave the impression that he'd intended to continue, the little violences had their desired effect, and he remained silent again thereafter.

Joly neglected to relay these events precisely accurately in his jotter, for he suspected Enjolras would rather rue having to relive it later in the evening.

"So be it, then," said Combeferre firmly. "Courfeyrac will see to the salon at Chatou, and, if I am understanding properly, Laigle to one at Meaux, Jean Prouvaire to our local masons." He looked to Enjolras for confirmation and received in reply a certain vague expression which he must have understood without words, for he then quickly added, "Bahorel, you are in contact with the proprietor of the old quarry?"

"Indeed! Now…"

Enjolras smiled.


End file.
